


When You Walked into My Life and We Connected

by DaisukeKazamatsuri



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Alternate Reality, Angst, Canonical Character Death, Changed Reality, Drama, Drama & Romance, Headaches & Migraines, M/M, Memory Alteration, Memory Loss, Nightmares, Romance, Wishes, Wishes Gone Wrong, Wishful Thinking, Wordcount: Over 1.000, Wordcount: Over 10.000, memory retrieval
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-07
Updated: 2017-08-14
Packaged: 2018-04-25 08:01:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4952677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaisukeKazamatsuri/pseuds/DaisukeKazamatsuri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yosuke has been going out with Yu for three years now, they share an apartment in the city and everything seems perfect -- except for Yu's constant nightmares.  The events of his first year in Inaba have been haunting Yu since they caught the culprit, and Yosuke can't stand watching his Partner suffer from them anymore.  So in the darkness of the night, the brunette makes a wish...and immediately regrets it.  Though, he doesn't remember what it is he's regretting for too long....</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: A Wish Too Far

Yosuke stared at the peaceful visage of his partner, curled up on the bed and facing each other beneath the covers. The both of them were stark naked, and Yosuke couldn't stop the compulsion to run his hand through the silky silver hair that always caught his eye. The puffy and red eyes beneath those locks shined with shed tears, but were perfectly relaxed now, free of nightmares -- at least for the moment.

"I wish," the rest of the words caught in Yosuke's throat as he brushed one of his own unruly brown locks out of his face, keeping himself from tearing up. His mind wandered, as it often did in the aftermath of Yu's nightmares, to the events of that first year they knew each other. The tragedy and emotional turmoil that they had all gone through chasing after Adachi and Namatame, all ending in a grand battle where they had all nearly died to the power of the goddess Izanami. Even after that, when Yu had come back for Golden Week and Labrys and Sho had promptly (if unintentionally on Labrys' part) fucked with the visit. Of course, Yosuke couldn't forget the business with the Love Meets Bonds Festival, but he decided it was best not to dwell on it too much. Sure, all of it added up to the Investigation Team becoming as close as they were, and their 'family' growing to some now 20 or so people, but sometimes Yosuke felt his desires drifting into dangerous territory.

Especially after Yu and Yosuke started going out, and subsequently living together near their college in the city. Chie and Yukiko lived down the hall while Chie attended the Police Academy and Yukiko took business classes in night school after taking a part-time job as a waitress. That was when Yosuke discovered Yu's nightmares, and when he started making dangerous wishes in his head.

Every time the wish even vaguely shot through his mind, he felt Susano-O react violently in his head, as if warning him against this path. Yosuke knew that it was dangerous, but he couldn't help that. So it was in the darkness of the room, slivers of moonlight shining on his partner's face, that Yosuke finally let out the words that had been circling his mind.

"I wish our lives could have been normal. I wish we could have met properly, not with murder and meddling gods breathing down our necks."

As soon as the words had left his mouth, Yosuke knew it was exactly the wrong thing to do. Susano-O scrambled in his mind, possibly for some kind of purchase as Yosuke felt him begin to slip away, and Yosuke tried to reach for him. As he did, though, he felt his memories slip by him, saw but didn't understand as his surroundings faded into light. The last thing he saw before it all vanished was Yu staring at him in horror, and Yosuke only managed a single statement before he was gone: "I'm sorry, Partner."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...this little bunny has been rattling around my brain for a while, and I just need to get part of what I've written up here. I'm hoping I get a chance to work on this more thoroughly than my other works (please see my collection of first chapters for the Detective Conan/Magic Kaito universe on ff.net titled "In Another Life"), and that I actually manage to finish it. The good news is that unlike the DCMK universe, it's fairly easy to do a mid-length story and not have to either do a one-shot or a Harry Potter book seven-length novel story. As it is I would love to hear from you all! Doesn't matter if it's just a 'hey' or if it's a request for a specific thing to happen in the story (the latter is highly encouraged), if I know you're reading, I'm more than happy. Of course, I don't expect too much from this first post -- it's just a prologue -- but I do hope that chapter one (whichi will be finished soon) will spark your interest.


	2. I Have Died Every Day Waiting For You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yosuke's life is falling apart, and when he finally snaps, he's met with the image of a Savior.

To say that Hanamura Yosuke had been sweet on his upperclassman Konishi Saki in high school was like saying that the grass was green in the summer, it was something that everyone just knew. So when their relationship progressed to boyfriend-girlfriend and then to living together during college, it was only natural. The couple bickered and teased, but never seemed to really argue, so they seemed like a good couple.

But every lasting couple, friends or significant others, will tell you that without arguments about the deep things, the things that bother you and tell you what your individual values are, the relationship becomes flat and fake. So when their first real argument broke out, the image of the perfect couple that they had been adhering to vanished entirely.

"What do you mean, you don't know?!" Saki's voice rang through the apartment like a husky growl, her hands curled into fists at her side as she straightened her arms in anger.

"I mean I don't know, damn it! Why is that always so hard for you to understand?!" Yosuke was throwing his arm wildly to the side, palm out as he stepped forward and shouted in his girlfriend's face.

"Because people usually know if they like their job! Do you like being a store manager or not?!" Saki was stamping her foot and puffing her cheeks slightly, her hair falling into her face and her eyes widening as the argument went on.

"Well I guess I'm not that usual a person, then, because I just don't fuckin' know!" Yosuke finally turned toward the wall of the apartment's hallway, slamming his hand against it as he resisted hitting Saki. He hated that he had the urges, but he always stifled them -- they were unhealthy and having the want to hit his girlfriend disturbed him sometimes.

Saki didn't seem to notice, though, because she just stomped right over to him and continued yelling, "Clearly! Why can't you just figure it out?!"

Yosuke curled his fingers tightly as the urge pushed forward and nearly took over his instincts. He had to clench his teeth as he responded, "It's not that easy, Saki."

"Bullshit! You spend all your time working, and the little time you have at home you just sit next to me like a bump on a log! Either you like your job or you don't, because you sure as hell don't seem to like me, let alone love me!"

His patience ran out. The loud crack of flesh on flesh rang through the apartment and left the couple silent. Saki's face reflected shock for all of three seconds before settling into a mask of anger and apathy. Yosuke watched her cheek turn a bright red in the shape of his hand for several seconds himself, but his resolve solidified on his face just then.

He might have been more hurt by that if the tension hadn't been building between them the way it had for the last three years. Instead of stopping to comfort or talk to her, he just marched into their room and systematically packed his stuff into a couple of boxes. With so much of the stuff in the apartment belonging to Saki, he just needed two boxes for the moment and he'd be back for the rest in a week or so. Telling Saki as much, Yosuke just marched out the door and slammed it shut, stomping down the hall to the elevator where he punched the button for the ground floor and dropped his boxes on the ground.

Dialing quickly, Yosuke formulated the start of his upcoming conversation as he listened to the ringing of the phone. The other end picked up, and Yosuke spoke rather quickly into the mic, "Hey Chie, could I crash at your place for a while? I kinda need a place to stay."

"Uhh...sure, Yosuke, Yukiko and I can lend you the couch, but can I ask what happened?" Chie sounded confused and slightly out of breath, and Yosuke was sure he'd interrupted the two in the middle of something. He felt kind of sorry for doing it, but he did need a place to stay and he didn't want to just show up at their door in case they were doing something they wouldn't want him to see.

"I'd rather talk about it in person when you guys are done. If you like, I can just come by later?" He knew that they couldn't see him, but he still grinned and raised an eyebrow as he spoke, knowing also that they were likely in the middle of something based on the way his best female friend spoke.

There was stuttering on the other end, but then a confirmation from a calmer voice had him giving them a time for later in the afternoon, and the brunette changed his direction coming out of the elevator for the local cafe a block away instead of Chie's apartment some six or seven blocks in the other direction. Yosuke balanced his boxes on his knee precariously for a moment as he closed his flip phone (he hadn't bothered to upgrade since he couldn't really afford it and his current phone did the job just fine, thank you) and put it away. When he put his leg back down, however, he lost just enough balance for the top box to begin falling.

"Shit!" Yosuke tried to regain his balance without losing the bottom box, but he knew it was too late.

Just before the box tilted enough that it was falling off completely, a pair of hands reached over and caught it, righting it without losing any of its contents, "Whoa, there."

Yosuke took a moment to make sure it was all secure again before looking at the savior of his stuff, "Thanks man, you're a-" the brunette's breath caught in his throat as he took in the sight before him. A man about his age, probably early twenties, with silver hair cut into a slightly curled bowl cut that looked oddly stylish on his gently-angled face, a pair of matching silver eyes peering down at him, was standing there simply staring at Yosuke.

"Hm? What am I?" The man's voice was like satin, and though Yosuke had spent quite some time swearing that he wasn't gay though there wasn't anything wrong with it and he fully supported his gay friends, and...okay, so he was checking out the guy who had just saved his stuff, so he had to be at least bisexual, and damn it but he really needed to stop rambling in his head.

"A lifesaver," Yosuke replied almost absentmindedly, "a real...lifesaver." He could really get lost in those eyes.

"Well, you were having a bit of trouble there so I couldn't very well just let it fall if I could help it, could I? What do you say we grab a cup of coffee and you can set those down for a bit, that looks like you have quite the story and I'm told I'm good at lending an ear." The stranger smiled rather gently at Yosuke, holding out his hand in the direction of the cafe that the brunette had originally been heading for in invitation.

"O-okay." Yosuke could swear up and down that he wasn't blushing, but it didn't make his face any less warm as he followed the stranger to a table in the cafe near the back. They were both greeted familiarly by the staff, and Yosuke finally learned this handsome stranger's name. "Yu, huh?"

Yu just grinned mischievously, "Yes, that would be my name, Yosuke."

Yosuke laughed, now a bit calmed down since he was in familiar territory, "Touché."

Yu smiled, chuckling slightly, and both young men turned to the waitress and ordered a cup of coffee, Yu's with lots of cream and Yosuke's with just one sugar, before settling into some basic small talk.

"So, weather aside, what left you outside of an apartment complex with two boxes full of stuff that you couldn't balance while you talked with your friend on the phone?" Yu dove right into the topic at hand.

"Ah, well, you see, my girlfriend and I kinda just broke up. We'd been living together for a while but it just wasn't working out, you know what I mean?" Yosuke scratched the back of his head nervously, trying to laugh the situation off.

Yu's eyebrow rose, "Oh? What happened, if I may ask?"

"Ah...y'know, I'm not even really sure myself. We hadn't ever gotten into an argument before, then suddenly she's shouting about how I don't seem to have any opinions or some shit. Telling me that I should know whether or not I like my job and how I clearly don't love her since I can't even seem to sort out any strong feelings about our relationship. So I kinda...slapped her." Yosuke ended with a blush as he looked down at his coffee cup, scratching at his nose.

Yu's other eyebrow rose, "That's a pretty serious reaction. Did it come as a surprise to you as well as to her?"

"Er, just to her. I've actually been suppressing the urges for a while and why am I telling you this I haven't even told my best friends this stuff." Yosuke's eyes were scanning the table wildly but refused to make contact with Yu's as the brunette wondered what the hell was wrong with him.

Yu just laughed gently, "I get that a lot. It seems that I have some kind of air around me that lets people let their worries out without judgment. Oh, and don't worry, I'm not going to go off to the police or your friends to spill your secrets or anything."

Yosuke sighed and slumped slightly in relief, "That's good to hear. Anyway, since I'd been living with her pretty much since high school, I needed a place to crash. My friends have an apartment only a few blocks away, but they were, erm, busy, when I called so I figured I'd just hang out here for a while."

Yu smiled, "Sounds good. If you don't mind the company, may I walk you there? I must admit I'm a little curious. You intrigue me and I might like to run into you in the future."

Yosuke blushed and stammered, "S-s-s-sure, I-I guess."

Yu's smile widened into a grin, "Thank you, Yosuke."

The two of them finished their drinks and stood, preparing to make their way to Chie's apartment. Yu grabbed one of the boxes for Yosuke, making the load much easier on the brunette, and continued the conversation as they walked, "So these friends you're going to be staying with, what are they like?"

"Well," Yosuke started, dodging hastily around a pedestrian passing the other way in a hurry, "Chie's a bit of a Kung Fu nut, and she has a tendency to talk about nothing but meat. She's been my best friend since high school, so I'm not really sure how to describe her otherwise. Then there's her girlfriend Yukiko. She can seem a bit standoffish at first, but she's really just oblivious and a bit strange. Really, the weirdest thing is her laughing fits. She doesn't have them around me much, but Chie tells me she can get pretty helpless and unable to stop laughing for a long time. I think her record is about fifteen minutes."

"They sound interesting," Yu replied, dodging gracefully around a group of teenage girls giggling and hunched together as they walked the other way. "I look forward to meeting them."

Yosuke glanced at his new acquaintance, blushing again at the relaxed and intrigued smile on Yu's face. Dammit, what the hell was wrong with him? "I-if you say so."

Short as the conversation had been, it had been just long enough for them to walk the entire distance between the coffee shop and Chie's apartment building. Looking up at the looming skyscraper, Yosuke took a deep breath and let it out in a huff. Here went nothing. The pair marched right up to the front door, and Yosuke pressed the buzzer for Chie's apartment, balancing his box easily under one arm. There wasn't even any verbal response through the intercom, a moment later the door just buzzed open and Yosuke pushed the door open, holding it for Yu as he passed.

As Yu took the door from him, Yosuke noticed a wide grin across the silver-haired man's face, but didn't ask. The two marched up to the fourth floor, Yosuke in front as they walked single file up the narrow staircase, and the brunette kept getting glances of the now-permanent grin on Yu's face, which he could almost swear was getting wider. When they approached Chie's door, Yosuke thought for a moment that he saw teeth, but once again didn't comment as he knocked on his best friend's door.

Short brown hair was immediately in Yosuke's face, and he had to stumble back a bit as Chie stormed forward from the doorway, her spaghetti strap tank top and short shorts looking obviously rumpled as she pointed viciously at Yosuke's chin. "What the hell, Yosuke?! What did you do?!"

Behind the irate girl, Yukiko had to stifle her oncoming giggling fit, using her long black hair (unusually loose and missing her headband) to try and hide her face, her own sweater and mid-length skirt looking almost as rumpled as Chie's clothes. Yosuke glared a little at her in betrayal, but was quickly reminded of just whose hand was at his throat as Chie stomped her bare foot on the ground.

"Hey, hey! It's not like it was one hundred percent my fault! She was the one screaming at me. Really this was a long time in coming." Yosuke huffed, blowing a stray hair out of his face.

Yu snickered quietly behind the brunette male himself, though Yosuke could hear him quite clearly, and it caused Chie to finally notice Yosuke's companion. "Ah, Narukami-kun! What are you doing here?"

Yosuke did a double take at that, looking between Chie and Yu rapidly, "Wait, you know him?"

Chie's attention centered back on the department store manager, "Well, yeah. He's our neighbor. He lives about two doors down that way and on the other side of the hall." Chie pointed further down the hall away from the staircase, clearly confused that Yosuke had come in with Yu and didn't know he lived there.

Yukiko, finally recovered from her giggle fit, stepped up behind Chie and spoke for the first time since the boys had arrived at the door to the apartment, "Why don't we let them come in and put Yosuke's stuff away, Chie? I'm sure that whatever happened, he'd rather tell us without all his stuff in a box on his lap."

"Ah! Sorry, Yosuke," Chie said, rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment, "Your room's this way, c'mon."

The brunette girl led them into the apartment, gesturing to the last door on the right and leading them into their guest room. The boys set the boxes down on the bed and followed Chie back into the living room, taking seats in the armchairs on either side of the couch as Chie rejoined her girlfriend on it. There was a short, awkward pause as Yosuke gathered his thoughts, and Yukiko prompted the start of the conversation, "So what happened?"

Yosuke took a deep breath, "Saki and I had an argument. It had started out normal enough, but then Saki got into some stuff about my job, and I guess we both just...exploded. In the end, she told me there was no way I loved her and I guess I just snapped. I packed up my stuff and walked out, but even while I was doing it I realized that she was right. Whatever feelings I had for her either died a long time ago or were never there in the first place."

Chie and Yukiko started to give him comforting words, but Yosuke couldn't really hear them. He wasn't sure what was happening, but somehow he was seeing a very different scene around him than his friends' apartment. Instead, he was standing in what looked like Saki's family's liquor store back in Inaba, but there were several different things about it.

For one, the liquor barrels and bottles were stacked from floor to ceiling all over the place, and there was a little bit of yellow fog throughout the place. The strangest things, though, were the fact that he was standing next to Yu and a weird red blue and white bear thing, and both he and Yu were in the Yasogami High School uniform. Yosuke knew on one level that Yu had never gone to Yasogami, but somehow it still seemed perfectly normal to see the silver-haired teen (because they were both teens here) in the uniform. They also seemed to be wearing glasses, but Yosuke wasn't sure why. Just as he thought to ask, though, a muffled voice that sounded very much like his own sounded from off to the side.

When the brunette turned, he saw what looked to be a copy of himself, minus the glasses but still in the Yasogami uniform, and with bright yellow eyes. He saw the copy's mouth moving, but the voice still sounded muffled. He felt his anxiety rise, apparently in response to the words he couldn't hear, and heard his own voice loud and clear, "Who are you!? I-I wouldn't think that..."

More muffled talking, an evil grin spreading across the copy's face, and Yosuke could feel his heart speed up in a panic, "What're you saying...? That's not true, I--" He was interrupted by his...why did he keep feeling like calling it his Shadow, and why did he keep getting more and more anxious every time it spoke? "S-stop it!"

Finally the voice of his Shadow became clear, though there was a bit of a double layer to its voice, "Hahaha! Why so panicked? I thought I was just spouting bullshit! Or maybe...I do know everything you're thinking! Why's that...? Because I am you! You just came because you thought it sounded like a good time! What else is there to do out in this shithole? A world inside the TV--now that's exciting! You didn't have a single other reason for coming here, did you!?"

Confusion set into Yosuke's mind, but it didn't seem to register from the rest of his body, almost like he was reliving an old memory in real-time, "That's not true... Stop... Stop it..."

The Shadow grew agitated and threw its arm out in annoyance the same way Yosuke knew he was prone to doing when angry or annoyed, "You're just trying to act like a big shot..." a sneer settled into the Shadow's face, "If all went well, hey, maybe you could even be a hero! And that Senpai you were so sweet on? Her death was the perfect excuse!"

Shock rang through Yosuke's brain, but anger and agitation swept through his body, causing him to mimic the gesture the Shadow had just used, "That's not true! What are you!? Who are you!?"

The Shadow's face broke into that evil grin again as it responded chuckling a bit, "I already told ya. I'm you... Your Shadow... There's nothing I don't know about you!"

Yosuke felt like he was watching a movie, observing actors on screen as the words being thrown around simultaneously shook him to his core and sounded utterly familiar--like a case of deja vu that he couldn't remember living the first time. All the while, his body kept spouting words at his Shadow, "Screw that! I don't know you! You can't be me, you son of a bitch!!"

The Shadow started laughing, standing just a bit taller, "That's right, say it again!"

Yosuke's body grit its teeth, "You're not me. You're nothing like me!!"

The Shadow's grin never left its face, "Hmph! Yeah, that's right. I am me now. I'm not you anymore, see?"

Yosuke's body took a scared step back as black forms rushed toward his Shadow, but before he could see what was going on, he collapsed, passing out.

The memory seemed to skip ahead, and when his body got back up, it felt far more exhausted than Yosuke could ever remember feeling. "I...I..."

Yu and the strange bear approached him from the other side of the shop, and this time the bear seemed to speak in a muffled voice, but Yosuke answered nonetheless, "Y-yeah... What... happened...?" The bear just turned to look at Yosuke's Shadow, which was now surrounded by a dark blue light but otherwise seemed the same.

The Shadow didn't say anything at first, just stared at Yosuke, and the brunette could feel himself speaking again, "You... You're... not me..."

The bear's muffled voice came through again, sounding sad and pleading, but Yosuke could still feel himself rejecting the form in front of him. Finally, Yu's voice rang through, clear as day, from behind him, "You're still yourself."

Yosuke turned to see him, feeling the words ring through him, "Myself..." He looked down, reluctant beyond all reason to let whatever was going on happen, "Dammit... It hurts to face yourself..." Yosuke turned back to his Shadow, speaking to the room in general, "I knew it wasn't lying... But I was so ashamed that I didn't want to admit it..." He took a few steps toward the Shadow, "You're me... and I'm you. When you get down to it, all of this is me."

The Shadow nodded at the words, and a bright light engulfed it, turning it into a strange ninja-like creature with a Mickey Mouse-like head and a long scarf, decorated here and there with camouflage clothes and holding a throwing star in each hand. Yosuke heard a voice ring through his head, "Thou art I and I art thou...I am your Persona, Jiraya."

The creature disappeared, its light drifting over Yosuke and into his body, and once it settled, he felt his lips move without his permission, "This is my Persona..."

"YOSUKE!" Chie's voice broke through the image, and suddenly the brunette was back in his friends' apartment, feeling like he'd just spaced out. What was that...?

"You okay?" Yukiko asked in her calm voice, startling Yosuke from the remainder of his reverie.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm...fine." He couldn't seem to make eye contact with the others as he said it, but he could feel Yu's heated gaze on him anyway. Was that a dream, or a memory? It was impossible to tell.

Deciding to dwell on it later, Yosuke shook his head as if to dislodge the images, and gave a slanted smile to the other three occupants of the room, "Just spacing out. I guess the break-up did more to me than I realized."

Yukiko nodded, "Understandable, you two were going out for three years, even living together. It's no surprise that you'd feel some aftereffects of a break-up."

Chie was nodding along with Yukiko's statement, but it was Yu's expression that caught Yosuke off-guard. The brunette had half expected to get a concerned or perhaps even consternation, but Yu's expression was closer to searching calculation or deduction than either of those. The expression caused a sharp pain to lance through Yosuke's head, and he winced and grabbed the side of his forehead from the feeling.

"Yosuke?" Chie asked, clearly worried.

The pain vanished as soon as it had come, and Yosuke was quick to smile and reassure her, "I'm fine, just a bit of a headache is all."

Chie heaved a sigh of relief, satisfied, and the conversation turned to lighter topics. "So, Narukami-kun, where did you run into this sad sac?"

Yosuke frowned, feeling like there was something about the way she addressed him that felt wrong.

Yu smiled, though, and answered politely, "Actually, I was on my way home from a friend's, and happened to see him trying to balance the boxes by himself with one hand. He looked like he needed help," Yu shrugged, "so I figured I should help."

Yukiko giggled a bit and Yosuke blushed, but Chie balked, "Wow, I didn't know Yosuke could invoke the need for help. He's usually got his foot in his mouth, so people usually just let him suffer."

This time Yosuke huffed and looked away, crossing his arms defensively and puffing his cheeks. Yukiko's giggle threatened to become a full laugh, and even Yu chuckled a bit, but Yosuke didn't bother to look at them. Too embarrassing.

Finally the conversation petered out and polite goodbyes were given, Yu retreating to his own apartment and Yosuke retiring to his room to set up his stuff and lie down for a bit -- quite exhausted. It was just as he was staring at the ceiling, thinking about the man he'd met so suddenly, that the world faded out on him again.

This time he was riding his bike toward the school back in Inaba, rolling along the Flood Plain when he spotted a familiar head of silver hair from the back, again wearing the Yasogami High uniform and with a bookbag under his arm. Yosuke called out to him, "Yo!" and rang his bell, causing the teen version of Yu to turn and face him as he dismounted his bike.

Yosuke then seemed to go into a long, one-sided dialogue that made no sense to him, and yet made perfect sense. "You saw what was on last night, right? I couldn't tell who it was, but if someone's shown up on TV, we can't ignore it." What? What did someone showing up on TV have to do with anything? "Let's go check it out after school. Maybe Teddie can tell us something." Who was Teddie? He didn't remember anyone by that name, but for some reason an image of the strange bear thing from the other dream-memory felt like he fit into the answer to that question perfectly. Yu nodded at the statement, though, and Yosuke looked down at the ground, "If it turns out someone was thrown in again, there really might be a culprit behind all this." Thrown in? Thrown in where? And what kind of culprit would he be talking about? The image of the yellow fog seemed to come prominently to the front of his mind, obscuring two figures he couldn't make out. "Even if it is something about that place that's killing the victims...if someone's using that world as a weapon, that's unforgivable." How in the hell could a world be a weapon? Yosuke felt so confused. His body looked back up at Yu, and his hand waved a bit in emphasis at his next statement, "We need to find the culprit...no matter what it takes!"

Yu's face changed to surprise and a small noise escaped him at the declaration.

Yosuke just continued, disregarding the other boy's shock, "There's no way the police can do it... Who'd believe that the murderer kills people by throwing them into the TV?"

Yu replied this time, even with just a simple statement, "Let's bring an end to this."

Yosuke nodded quite seriously, "Yeah... I agree."

Yu nodded again, and Yosuke found himself speaking in a lighter tone, "You know, I tried sticking my head in the TV last night, the way you did, and it actually worked."

Yu's face was the picture of confused disbelief, but he didn't speak, so Yosuke just kept going.

"I think I can do that now because I have the same power... Persona, wasn't it? Could be that we got this gift from someone specifically so we could solve the case." Yosuke glanced at the ground and felt his hand wave slightly dismissively in the air again, "Then again, you managed to go inside the TV and get your Persona first..." Yosuke grinned, "I feel like, as long as you're with me, I can find the culprit and crack this case... well, let's do our best!"

Yosuke reached out his hand to shake, and Yu strode forward to accept it, only to space out for a moment, frozen in place. Before Yosuke could inquire, however, Yu snapped out of it and the two strode off toward school, causing the scene to fade out around him again.

The brunette awoke to the ceiling of the room shrouded in darkness, and the strange feeling that he was being watched, but he calmed his frazzled nerves with a deep breath and the thought that his imagination was clearly getting the better of him. He then passed out, still fully clothed and on top of the sheets, from pure emotional exhaustion, hopeful that the next day would be much more quiet than this one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, lay it on me, guys! I need feedback!


	3. I Don't Want to Remember It All, the Promises I Made If You Just Hold On...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yu watches his Partner vanish before his eyes...and then a brunette drops into his life unexpectedly.
> 
> UPDATE: I have edited several grammatical bits and the entire Velvet Room cameo. Please re-read and read ending notes to find out what happened to make me change it!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the Yu side of what's happened so far! I will be occasionally doing these to get a glimpse into Mr. Perfect's situation as the story requires, and make sure to pay attention to our special guests at the end of the chapter!

The implications of Yosuke's wish hit Yu with an immediate insistence that had the silverette awake in a matter of seconds.

It was too long. Yosuke was fading, already partly see-through, and his words sank in only after he'd vanished, "I'm sorry, Partner."

Yu felt the sobs jerk through his body and wrench the tears from his eyes even as he felt his memories vanishing. Soon, he wasn't sure what he was crying for, but the room felt empty and bare and cold, so the sobs kept coming. The vague memory of his uncle and younger cousin's existence seemed sad and wrong, and the lack of restless feelings in the back of his mind was disturbing.

Despite knowing that this night was no different than any others, Yu felt suddenly and inexplicably alone.

  


Perhaps it was this loneliness that caused Yu to walk past his apartment door and further down the street when he got out of work the next day, but the sight he encountered during the walk made him infinitely glad he did.

Yu felt at once like the man, struggling to balance two boxes and keep a phone to his ear, was a new sight and something so familiar that it shocked him to the core. He stopped to take in the mop of brown hair, somehow longer than he thought it should be, and the slim frame that seemed somehow pudgier than expected despite being a perfectly average proportion. The man closed his old-looking flip-phone, a fact that also felt wrong to Yu's confused mind, and the top box he was balancing started to tip forward off the bottom one.

The silverette only had a second to catch the startled, horrified look on the brunette's face before he instinctively launched forward to catch the falling object. Thankfully nothing had spilled before he caught it, and Yu let out a reflexive "woah, there" as he re-secured the boxes.

"Thanks man, you're a--" The brunette's gaze finally landed on him and the flow of speech abruptly stopped. Yu took a moment to note that the man was tall, only a few centimeters shorter than himself (at 180cm, Yu was very tall). As the moment of silence stretched on, however, Yu felt himself grow pretty self-conscious.

Deciding to play it off, he kept his face mildly amused, "Hm? What am I?"

The man was staring into his eyes, but gave a somewhat absentminded reply, "A lifesaver, a real...lifesaver."

Now Yu was smiling for real, "Well, you were having a bit of trouble there so I couldn't very well just let it fall if I could help it, could I?" The thought of Chagall Cafe, a block or so away, occurred to him, "What do you say we grab a cup of coffee and you can set those down for a bit. That looks like you have quite the story and I'm told I'm good at lending an ear."

The brunette agreed, and they both stepped into Chagall to be greeted by the staff by their given names. The brunette cracked a joke at Yu's name, and Yu was surprised at the ease with which he joked back. "Yes, that would be my name, Yosuke."

They made small talk, and Yosuke told Yu his story. Yu couldn't say he was surprised by most of it, but the fact that Yosuke was suppressing the urge to hit his girlfriend was concerning.

Yosuke seemed to be more relaxed, so the pair of them headed off to Yosuke's friends' apartment. As they approached the building in question, Yu couldn't keep the smile off his face, when they reached the floor the apartment was on, his grin was showing teeth that he couldn't hide anymore, and when they stopped at the door, Yu felt like he could laugh in delight. It wasn't every day that you met someone on the street who would be living down the hall from you, after all, and Yu quite liked Yosuke's company already.

Yosuke's strange spacing out moment was concerning, especially after the day that the brunette had been having, but Yu figured he was just tired and so politely retired to his apartment. When he entered, his orange tabby, Zio, greeted him at the door with all of his usual enthusiasm, and Yu had to wonder whether he was really a cat or secretly a dog. Yu leaned down to pet the exuberant cat, and went about his daily routine for the evening. When all of his chores were done, and he was finally able to relax, the man collapsed on his futon to stare at the ceiling in the moonlit darkness.

So much had happened, and there was something tugging at his mind, something that felt out of place as he tried to settle into his usual comfortable position. Eventually he settled on his side, arms held in front of his chest, but even as he drifted off to sleep, he couldn't seem to shake the feeling that there was something missing, something that should be there with him.

As he slept, Yu dreamt of twisted shopping districts in a distant town he never visited, two Yosukes in high school uniforms he never should have seen, a clown-like bear mascot, and warm companionship that had disappeared too suddenly and with too many tears.

  


In a blue room that looked too much like the inside of a limousine, existing outside of time and space, between dreams and reality, mind and matter, a strange man with a large nose and bulging eyes stared at the cards he had spread out on the table. Next to him was his blonde assistant, Margaret, who was observing the table with him with confusion and curiosity.

"Master, why have you interfered so much? Has the contract been broken?"

The old man looked up at his assistant, hands folded under his nose and gaze entirely serious, a somewhat rare sight. "No, Margaret. The contract has not been broken, nor have I interfered."

Margaret looked confused for another moment before her expression shifted to shock and understanding, "You don't mean--"

Igor stared her in the eye, "Oh, but I do, Margaret. The balance has been upset by that boy's own doing. If he cannot figure out what lead to this, it will spell disaster for our guest-- and the world. He may need our help again, or perhaps a miracle."

With that, both residents of the Velvet Room looked back down at the spread Tarot cards with grave looks on their faces, where the Magician and Fool cards were sitting upside-down in the center of the spread.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please comment!
> 
> UPDATE: So, I didn't mean to actually post this. This chapter was still under construction and I was experimenting with the html stuff to make sure it would all work. I must have posted it instead of just saving by accident. This is the newly revised edition, and so the Velvet Room cameo dialogue has been completely changed. The comment attached (Thank you Yamiyoru for being so enthusiastic about it! I promise Adachi will be involved later, but it will be in a hopefully unexpected way) is in reference to the original dialogue. My original idea involved having Igor be the driving force behind what happened, but I realized just how out of character that really was and scrapped it, but hadn't changed the scene yet. I was just trying to make sure the breaks between scenes (which I may have to go back and add in to previous chapters) would actually translate on the site. I posted by mistake ^.^; I'm so sorry guys!!!


	4. Every Voice in My Head Shouted Yes and No

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yosuke starts to stumble on some strange things, and Yu seems to be experiencing similar problems.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title courtesy of "Dementia" by Owl City.

The following week was about as hectic as could be expected considering the break-up. Yosuke went back to work at the city's closest Junes as normal, and the scenes he'd been forced to watch in his head had faded a bit from his memory, certainly from his attentions. The brunette still occasionally ran into Yu in the hallway of the apartment complex, and the two occasionally popped down to the coffee shop together when Chie and Yukiko needed space.

Yu was fairly quiet about himself, but he seemed to have a very strong knack for getting Yosuke to talk about his life. It wasn't until the subject of retrieving the rest of Yosuke's stuff came up that anything of note seemed to happen outside of the two getting to know each other.

"I'm not comfortable going back by myself, but I also don't want to bug Chie or Yukiko about it, neither of them really liked Saki and I don't want any fights started while I'm there." Yosuke's head rested solidly on his palm as he groaned his current dilemma to the man that was rapidly becoming his best friend.

Yu sipped at his coffee, looking thoughtful, "I could go with you. I don't know her, so I doubt that any kind of fight would emerge, and I'd like to help."

Yosuke looked up in surprise, but after a moment smiled, ignoring the warm feeling spreading in his chest that was maybe too familiar. "I'd like that."

"So, um...are you seeing anyone?" As soon as the question left his mouth, Yosuke felt a pang of dread, hurt, and sorrow, but as far as he could tell, it should have been innocuous. The brief flash of shock and incredulity, followed by hurt and confusion that crossed Yu's face shoved Yosuke's foot further down his throat and into his stomach.

Yu's face turned carefully blank, "No, not at the moment." and Yosuke's relief was so complete that he felt dizzy from the tension leaving his body.

"Oh, uh...I'm sorry." The brunette scratched the back of his head bashfully, though there was something nagging at him about this whole exchange. Unable to figure out what it was, he put it out of his mind.

Yu smiled, but Yosuke could tell, somehow, that it was drawn a bit too tightly to be real. "It's fine. I suppose my romantic life hasn't really come up and you'd be curious by now."

Yosuke gave a nervous laugh, trying to cover his blundering and prevent another one, "I really don't mean to pry. I guess, with my situation and all, I just realized I didn't know anything about your social life."

Yu's smile became a little more genuine, "True. I was never very good at telling people about my life. I seem to come off as quiet and reserved, or so I'm told." The silverette's expression changed to realization, "Oh! What if I showed you my apartment? It feels like we're always talking here, anyway."

Yosuke felt like his face was on fire, "I- I- I- u-um, well- maybe- but- you- um- I- d-d-don't w-w-w-ant t-t-to, er- um-"

Yu laughed, long and hard and happily, and Yosuke swore his face just hit deepest-levels-of-hell hot, but the laugh wasn't mean-spirited. When Yu caught his breath, he spoke calmly and amicably, "It's no imposition. On the contrary, I would love to have you over, Yosuke. Please?"

The brunette's face didn't cool at all, but he nodded, staring down at the drink he had sitting on the table instead of up at his conversational partner. The two stood and left for Yu's apartment, Yosuke's heart in his throat and anticipation in his veins.

Silence reigned as they walked, and despite the short walk Yosuke managed to run through a bunch of worst-case scenarios in his head, as he was wont to do when he was nervous. What if he's a slob? What if he's anal retentive? What if he expects something out of me for bringing me here? What if I expect something out of me for his bringing me here? The thoughts got worse and worse, but Yosuke couldn't stop and the next thing he knew, they were standing in front of the apartment door, and Yu looked as if he was waiting for Yosuke to say something.

"Huh? Sorry, I spaced out there." Yosuke felt his face heat up again.

Yu smiled in his usual, simple way, and Yosuke calmed down, "I was just asking if you were alright. Ready?"

Yosuke swallowed, "R-right. Yeah, ready."

Yu smirked like he had some kind of private joke playing in his head, but he opened the door and allowed Yosuke to step in ahead of him.

Yosuke took a steadying breath and stepped in, slipping off his shoes, "I'm-- er- e-excuse the intrusion!"

Yu didn't seem to notice Yosuke's slip as he followed the brunette in and slipped off his own shoes. Instead he leaned down to pet the gray cat that met them at the door, and Yosuke was left taking in his first glimpse of the apartment.

As soon as he looked, Yosuke was struck with the same feeling that he had when he'd first seen Yu, and suddenly he had a name for it. Deja vu. The set up was familiar on such a deep level it was jarring. The kitchen was on the left, a kind of corner of the apartment's main room that was divided by a counter, and the rest of the room was taken up by the living room. A table with four cushions was placed between a couch on Yosuke's left against the wall and a television against the wall in the right. There was a door on the other side of the room, but where part of him expected a backyard, it opened onto a balcony.

Which would make sense, since this wasn't the first floor, but somehow the thought had pushed its way into Yosuke's head. On the left, between the counter for the kitchen and the couch, was a door to another room, left wide open to show the bare space inside, and on the right was a little hallway that probably led to the bedroom and bathroom.

Stepping into the spacious living room, Yosuke noticed a small box sitting on the kitchen counter. It looked as if it had recently been pulled out of somewhere kinda dusty, so it piqued Yosuke's interest. Before he really thought about it, the brunette opened the box and peered inside. The box contained several knickknacks: a rolled up poster, a folded piece of yellow cloth, an old fortune from a shrine, and some movie stubs. The stubs caught his eye first: they were in the middle of the clutter and facing up, the word 'Okina' standing out in his head, and they were for Dumminator 2, a movie he'd been really excited to see when it had hit theaters a few years ago.

Yu seemed to walk up to him just as Yosuke was pulling the stubs out of the box, looking a little confused and concerned, perhaps a bit panicked. "Yosuke? What are you doing?"

Yosuke couldn't seem to tear his eyes away from the little pieces of paper-- two of them, he noted-- even at Yu's question. "I don't know, there's just something...when did you go to Okina?"

Yu's surprise shone through at that, "Never. Why do you ask?"

Finally Yosuke's gaze shifted to Yu, but it slowly slid back to the tickets like magnets were tugging on his retinas even as he responded, "Because it was the closest city to where I went to high school, where I met Yukiko and Chie, and it's where these movie tickets are from."

Yu leaned over Yosuke's shoulder to look, spotting the theater location in the corner, and frowned, "But...I've never been there. I've only ever been in Tokyo."

Yosuke felt like there was something on the tip of his brain, trying to dive into that pool of logic that hadn't been used as much as it should have, like there was some leap of understanding that he should easily have been able to make. One of these tickets, one had been his. It even had the little fold in the straight corner that he liked to do when he fiddled with movie tickets in his pocket, but Yu had them. "You...you took me. To the movies."

Yu looked over at him incredulously, "what?"

Yosuke still couldn't look away from the little bit of paper, but he wasn't really seeing it anymore, "We took our scooters over to Okina, it was June. I begged you to go with me, since I didn't want to go alone, so you took me to see it one afternoon. It felt like it had been so long since it had been just the two of us, no Chie, no Yukiko, no Kanji, no little Nanako...." Yosuke didn't even know what it was he was saying anymore, just that the statements felt so RIGHT, so TRUE, and they wouldn't stop flowing out of his mouth. "It was the first time anyone took me to the movies like that besides my parents, and though you regularly took the others...you always took me. Once a month, you took me with you to...to..."

"30 Frame theater." Yu looked just as shocked that he knew that as Yosuke did. Like the words had come to his mind as easily as his name, but he had no idea where he'd learned them.

"Yeah." Yosuke and Yu stared into each other's eyes for a long while, searching each other for some kind of hidden confirmation. "Do you--" Yosuke started to ask about the memories he'd been getting, but a sharp pain lashed through his head before he got further than two words, and he clutched at his scalp. Something was stirring deep in his mind, and the pain was growing as he tried to concentrate on where he was.

The moment passed, however, and the pain faded only to be replaced with Yu's worried calls of his name. "Yosuke! Are you alright?!"

Yosuke stood up straight again, lifting his hand from the counter (when had he started leaning on the counter?) and smiling sheepishly at Yu, "Yeah, I'm fine, just a bit of a dizzy spell is all. Don't worry about it."

Yu sighed in relief, but insisted that Yosuke return to Chie and Yukiko's apartment to rest, and he wasn't taking no for an answer. Resigned, Yosuke trudged down the hall and collapsed into the bed in his room. He was about ready to drift to sleep when a new scene overtook his vision.

He was sitting at Souzai Daigaku, eating their famous steak croquettes at the table just in front of it, and Yu was seated across from him. They were both clad in Yasogami High uniforms again, and Yosuke felt a slight nervous feeling in his stomach.

"Sticking chunks of steak in croquettes... Man, this really is the country, huh?" Yosuke's hand was gesturing in emphasis before returning to a crossed position over his chest. "Well, it is good... though it's tough. Chie called this stuff 'tender and juicy'... What kind of teeth does she have...?"

The two had a bit of a laugh over that, but Yosuke spotted the two women walking by from behind Yu before they even got there. He kept his face on Yu, ignoring them until they passed by and apparently paused what they thought was far enough away to not be heard and started speaking to each other. Yu's focus shifted to the two women, and so Yosuke had to follow his gaze to them as well.

"He's from Junes... Yasogami High School, right?" One woman started.

The other responded, His classmate... Sato-san...? Went out of business..."

"The shopping district could disappear, and yet..." The conversation trailed off, and the two women walked away.

Yosuke turned to look back at Yu, the atmosphere suddenly heavy, and tried to laugh it off, "Sorry about that. You know me, I'm infamous around here."

Yu gave him a sympathetic look, "It must be tough."

Yosuke tried to brush it off, but he knew that looking down at the table wasn't helping, "Nahhh, it's not really. It's mainly my parents, I'm not personally involved. Anyways, there's nothing I can do about it." He shrugged, but he felt a little better for Yu's being sympathetic with him.

Yosuke looked back up at Yu, a little more confident, "I don't think there's anyone in Inaba who doesn't know me, at school or around town... Not that I mind, but... it sucks that I always gotta mind my manners." A smile spread across his face, and something stirred in his mind, like Jiraiya had learned something and was eager to use it.

Putting it aside, he looked back up at Yu, "Still, this croquette is damn good, huh? I'm gonna have another. You want one too, right?" Yu looked like he was going to fret over being treated, but acquiesced, so Yosuke's smile turned to a grin and the two ate croquettes until they couldn't anymore, and the brunette felt accomplished and more confident in his stride as he walked through town.

The scene faded and Yosuke was staring at the ceiling in the guest room again, taking several heavy breaths as he attempted to regain his composure and his bearings. What the hell, he thought that had been a fluke thing! It had seemed to be a continuation, but Yosuke couldn't make much sense of it outside of a weird conjuring of his own brain. At least there hadn't been any weird monsters or that creepy clown bear thing this time. Maybe his visit to Yu's apartment had been the trigger. After all, those tickets had caused SOMETHING to come to the front of his mind, something that Yu recalled as well, so maybe there wasn't really that much off about the theory.

But if that were the case, that would mean that they had lost their memories. Yosuke might be able to believe that he had lost them, he was a klutz that way, always getting himself into trouble that caused more problems than could be anticipated, but not only had he not been the only one to lose them, he had memories of specific days when things would have happened. And those days were filled with schoolwork and his work schedule, even the occasional date with Saki. Yosuke made a private bet with himself that if he went looking, he could find pictures that proved where he was on those days, and it wouldn't be with Yu at the movie theater or tromping around in a strange red, black and yellow world with a pair of knives and beating up Shadows.

As these other memories started to surface, aspects of them coming to mind despite his conscious insistence that they never happened, a sharp pain sliced through his head again, this time causing him to pass out. He didn't fall into the dreamless sleep of the unconscious entirely this time, however, and instead found himself standing in front of a strange blue door. It was simple and a bright but deep blue, and it took Yosuke a moment to realize that the 'bright' was literal, that the door was in fact glowing, as well as floating in the middle of an open, empty space.

The odd thing about it was that it gave off a familiar feeling, but somehow Yosuke knew that even in that other set of memories he had never seen it. He stared at it for a moment, captivated, before a loud bang against its surface startled him from his thoughts. It was followed by a voice, loud and shrill and panicked -- and sounding identical to his own.

"YOU BASTARD! YOU TOOK HIM! YOU TOOK HIM!! HOW COULD YOU!"

Sobs were the only thing Yosuke could hear after that, and he somehow knew that whoever was on the other side, they had broken down into tears. He had an image in his mind, a picture of himself with a long red scarf and a white and camouflage outfit, eyes clenched shut as he falls to his knees. Yosuke felt himself reach for the door, placing his hand gently on its surface as if he could soothe the hurt away, but as he got closer, the sharp pain came back through his head. The closer he got, the worse it felt, so he let his arm drop to his side as he turned and walked away...

...Walking right into the street of Okina, just outside the train station, next to Yu. He takes a deep breath and hears himself say, "Mmmm...it's been a while since I breathed this kinda air!" Suddenly he realizes he's having another memory, getting another peek into that 'other life', and it doesn't seem to be to long after the one in the middle of Inaba. "Y'know, I'm just a poor little city boy drawn to that urban scent." Memory-Yosuke turns to look at Yu and Yosuke can practically feel the anime-like sweat drop materialize over his head, "Wait a minute...am I starting to sound like Teddie?"

The image of the clown bear thing involuntarily came to mind, but Yosuke didn't have time to dwell on it when Yu responded, "Hmm, you're looking hairier." with a smirk on his face.

Memory-Yosuke couldn't stop the grin from spreading over his face, "Now that you mention it, the foam in my facial soap this morning had...! H-Hey, you're making me scare myself!" A chuckle bubbled up from Yosuke's chest, "Well, that aside, what should we--"

The conversation was interrupted by Yosuke's phone alerting them to an email, so Yosuke pulled it out to check. When he saw the screen, he sighed, "More spam..." he closed the phone and tucked it away, bringing his hand up to rub at his eyes, feeling suddenly exhausted. "Looks like someone got my address. I get a lot of spam."

"You don't block them?" Yu asks, concerned and perhaps curious, but doesn't ask any more than that. Still, Yosuke feels like he owes a little more explanation than 'yes' or 'no'.

"Even when I do, they change domains, so there's no point." The brunette looks down and lets out a frustrated growl, "And I don't wanna change my address..." he sighs, the exhaustion seeping in even further. He looks up to finish answering though, "I haven't changed addresses since before we moved to Inaba. I mean, I might get a text from someone. ...It's hard to call, y'know? If I called people just to tell them my number changed, they'd get annoyed."

Yu's face is looking frustrated as well the more Yosuke speaks, but he doesn't interrupt, and he keeps his face otherwise blank.

So Yosuke keeps going, "And some of them never planned to text me anyway..." Seeing the darkening of Yu's expression, Yosuke nervously tries to change the subject, "Oh but hey, don't look at me like I don't have any friends!" At this point, as Yosuke pauses, Yu's expression looks quite thunderous, so the brunette's smile drops, "Though to tell you the truth, I don't remember what we used to talk about. Can't really call 'em friends... Inaba suits me just fine. Plus...I got something I need to do there." Yosuke laughs a little and looks over at Yu, grinning. Yu's face has relaxed in surprise, but he looks a little awe-struck, too. "I'm counting on ya, partner!"

The spacey look takes over Yu's expression again, and Yosuke swears he can spot a little square of blue light in the silver-haired teens eyes. When Yosuke sees Yu's focus back on him, he continues, "Well, with that in mind, should we head back? It'd suck if something happened back there while we were over here! Alright, let's head home! Wait...let's get everyone a souvenir, then go home!" The brunette ran off enthusiastically to get said souvenirs, laughing as Yu followed him, a grin on the silver-haired man's face.

The images faded away again, the black space with the blue light from that strange door glowing behind him suddenly all around him again. There was something else, though. A cat. Seated in the middle of the empty space in front of him, green-eyed and brown-furred, looking to be maybe a year old. "Garu?" The cat meowed in response, approaching Yosuke so it could nuzzle his leg, and Yosuke wondered why he knew the name of this little furry creature. He seemed so familiar, fuzzy and warm and feeling like HOME, but Yosuke couldn't for the life of him remember when or where he'd seen it.

A slow, short, creak echoed behind him, and Yosuke turned to look at the door he had nearly forgotten existed. It was cracked open, just far enough that the brunette could see the chain keeping it closed, and for the resident inside to peek outward.

The face was exactly how he had imagined it: his own, the red scarf barely visible but covering everything besides the camouflage gloves from view, and those only because they were wrapped around the door, but the eyes were the big giveaway. They were golden on a black background, and the left was just able to peek out at him with rage and hurt. The visage caused a striking impression: Yosuke realized with a jolt like electricity that this was his Shadow, the culmination of all of his regret and denial and everything else, and it--he--was staring at him with absolute contempt. What did he do to hate himself so much? What happened to cause this?

"We had everything we could ever want." The Shadow seemed to answer his thought, his eyes softening, "We were happy, we were done fighting, we had found him, but then you...." The Shadow glared up at Yosuke again, "You wished for more. Worse, you wished for a kind of more that took him away. Now, no one remembers anything. No one remembers the hardships we went through, or the lessons we learned. So I'm going to make YOU remember. I'm going to make sure you know what you're missing, and we're going to get it back."

Yosuke was still trying to formulate a reply when the Shadow slammed the door in his face and the brunette got flung out of the dark space, waking with a jolt to the sun rising through his window blinds in the early morning. The brunette shivered, not sure if he was cold or just frightened out of his mind. It had to be one of the two, because he felt both. His thoughts wandered over what he had learned over the course of the night, dreams or not.

First of all, the vision he'd had before had been real. Yu had met Yosuke in Inaba in High School, and the two had embarked on a strange, heroic, something. They had become close, though how close Yosuke couldn't say just yet. Yosuke had wished for something, something incredibly stupid apparently, and somehow the wish had been granted, creating an alternate timeline or something. Now that Yosuke was in that alternate timeline and had met Yu again, his Shadow -- Jiraiya -- was forcing Yosuke to remember bits and pieces of the original timeline. He was supposed to suffer through learning what he'd inadvertently given up but unable to obtain it until he figured out a way to get the others to regain their memories. On top of all of this, bits and pieces were leaking through the new timeline, leaving traces of the original. Like tickets to a movie that Yosuke went to see with Yu in Okina.

Thoughts still racing, Yosuke looked at his clock and groaned. It was still very early, but he was meeting up with Yu later on to go and retrieve the rest of his stuff from Saki's apartment. The brunette rocked himself into a sitting position, covering his face with his hand. The information was giving him a headache, and as more of it came forward, Yosuke let out a longer, more pained groan.

Now that he was conscious of the process, he could feel the memory of Saki's death come forward, of diving into that creepy castle of a dungeon to chase after Chie and Yukiko. It clashed heavily with the information of all of his dates with Saki, of all of the lazy days where Chie and Yukiko were the closest things to friends Yosuke had. But it wasn't the same, and the more of the dungeon-crawling Yosuke saw, the more fake his days with Saki felt.

Giving in, Yosuke turned his attention to the day ahead, getting up and getting dressed. The brunette gave one last groan, this one more annoyed than pained, and headed out the door to the coffee shop to meet up with Yu. He figured he could wait a few hours.

On his desk, a framed photo slowly morphed, adding Chie and Yukiko to the odd scene of Yosuke on the hill over Inaba. Where it had just been the male brunette, winking at the camera on the left, now Chie gave a big smile with her eyes closed in the center and Yukiko a gentle curve of the lip on the right. They were spaced oddly, as if there should have been more people, but as Yosuke glanced at it, a fond smile on his face, he didn't notice anything amiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...Jiraiya is talking to Yosuke, sort of, and Yosuke is starting to get the bigger picture. But what else is lying in wait for our klutzy hero? Who is Garu? And what's with the picture?? Please comment!


	5. Even Though I'll Never Know What's Up Ahead, I'm Never Letting Go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yosuke finally gets his stuff back from Saki's apartment with Yu by his side, but a new threat approaches, and things are happening much too fast for Yu to keep up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Four months, wow. So it's not much, but here's another chapter from Yu's point of view. Needed to set up some stuff for the next part, and the next chapter will be much longer. Projecting 12 to 13 chapters total (not including prologue and epilogue) but that may change depending on how the next chapter ends up. Enjoy!

Yu marched down the street to Chagall, humming merrily to himself as he approached, an hour and a half early for his meeting with Yosuke. They had expected to meet at ten for their procurement of Yosuke's items from his ex-girlfriend's apartment, but Yu liked sitting at the café on Sunday mornings like this, people watching. It had been a few weeks (two? three? Yu could not really be sure, his days were blending together again, as they did every so often) since he had first met the brunette, but Yu had already gotten the impression that Yosuke was not an early riser by nature. In fact, though he seemed to give focus on a task put in front of him, Yosuke seemed like the type to wait for the task to be given to him first.

  


So it was a pretty big surprise for Yu to find Yosuke already seated at the table, staring up at the ceiling with his chin on the heel of his hand, looking as if he'd been there for quite some time. Yu took a moment to observe the brunette before entering, spotting the beginnings of dark circles under the eyes and a more spacey look on Yosuke's face than Yu had seen for awhile. Yu stepped into the cafe, chalking the look up to Yosuke's nervousness over going back to his old girlfriend's apartment.

  


The silverette sat down opposite Yosuke, smiling, and waited a beat to see if the brunette would notice. When he didn't, Yu spoke, "Nervous?"

  


Yosuke seemed to jump nearly a foot in the air, standing from his seat in his surprise. "Yu!" The brunette's hand latched itself to his chest as if to calm his heart, or maybe stop it from popping out of his ribcage. "You're early."

  


Yu smiled serenely, "Yeah, I like to people watch, so I figured I'd come and get my fill before you got here. I didn't expect you to be here first." The silverette raised an eyebrow in askance, causing Yosuke to look away and blush in embarrassment.

  


The brunette slowly sank back down into his seat, eyes turning contemplative and confused but still aimed out the window, "I guess...it's just weird for me. I feel like I'm bringing a new girlfriend to see a recent ex and it's...weird...to have that kind of feeling."

  


Yu's face smoothed in to surprised contemplation itself, thinking that over. Putting aside Yosuke's apparent feelings for himself as a "girlfriend", he was sure that it was awkward for the brunette to be walking into his old apartment with a new friend to move out completely. "Would you...rather take someone else with you?"

  


Yosuke's head whipped back toward Yu, eyes wide in shock and slight indignation, "Of course not!" He paused, blushing again as he realized that his outburst had attracted the attention of those around them. When the brunette spoke again, his voice was back to a normal level, "It's nothing like that, it's just...I'm not sure how Saki will react. This kind of thing has never happened to me before and I guess I am kind of nervous...maybe even a little scared."

  


Yu smiled gently, encouragingly, and Yosuke seemed to smile reflexively in return.

  


"I don't know what it is..." Yosuke said, placing his chin on the heel of his hand like he'd had earlier, the other hand laid across the table in a relaxed pose, "but I feel like I could tell you anything. I keep saying stuff I normally wouldn't even say to Chie, you know? But it feels like I could just say it to you and you won't make fun of me or anything."

  


Yu's face turned back to pure surprise for a moment, a thought entering his head, "Do you ever feel like...we've met before?"

  


Yosuke's surprise pulled his chin an inch off his hand as he stared back at Yu, "Actually...yeah, almost like we were..."

  


"...best friends." The two finished the sentence together. Shivers ran down Yu's back at the eeriness of the situation, and when Yosuke looked away in discomfort, the subject was dropped.

  


The two of them got up from the table and left the café, heading straight for Yosuke's old apartment. They entered the building in silence, marching up to the door and entering with Yosuke's key.

  


They did not expect Saki to be lying in wait for them when they opened the door.

  


"What, so you're finally here to pick up your crap? And who the hell are you?!" The girl's husky voice rang shrilly through the main room, first aimed at Yosuke and then at Yu.

  


Yu recoiled slightly from the hostile greeting, but Yosuke seemed to be mostly unaffected, "Yes, I'm here to pick up my crap. And who he is is none of your business, is it?"

  


"Oh, really?! How do I know you're not bringing in some kind of drug dealer into my apartment or something?! What right does he have to be here?!"

  


Yosuke drew himself up, standing tall enough that Yu felt a little bit intimidated even from behind the brunette, "He's here to help me get my stuff out of here, and if you'd let us by we'd be on our way." He tried to storm past the blonde, but she stood resolutely in front of him without budging.

  


"You know what, Yosuke?! _Hana-chan?!_ You're such a pain in the ass!"

  


The next few moments were extremely confusing for Yu. Yosuke seemed to recoil at the last statement more than the biting, sarcastic way that Saki had used what was apparently some old nickname for him. Then he clutched the side of his head in pain, and some kind of dark dust seemed to settle around Saki's frame. Yu would later swear he saw her eyes flash yellow before they closed and Saki collapsed to the floor, completely limp.

  


A moment later, Yu's own head seemed to split open, memories of a dirty old liquor store and strange beings made of black mist came through. Some kind of clown-like bear, and Yosuke in a school uniform, all having a conversation over words resounding from the atmosphere. Through the haze, he realized that Yosuke had dialed 119, but the new memories were taking over his vision even as the brunette waved his arm in front of his face. Yosuke's worried, panicked face was the last thing Yu saw before his vision was taken over with memories from another life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 119 is the emergency number for an ambulance in Japan. For the record, 110 is the number for their police.


	6. I never meant to start a fire, I never meant to make you bleed.  I'll be a better man today

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow has it been a long time. More than a year. Whoo boy. I want to apologize for the long wait, I won't give excuses (there aren't enough) but I will mention a couple of things:  
> First, this is the last chapter involving a memory sequence that is recreated. However, the sequence does have some nuances that I added for the purpose of this story. Time might get a little bit wonky in this chapter, as well, but there's a reason.  
> Second, this is an emotional rollercoaster of a chapter, so be prepared. It won't be the worst this story has to offer, but it's close.  
> Third, if you want to see what I'm up to, the best way is to catch my group's video game stream. We are on Twitch under the moniker ForeverPlayer1 and we stream every Wednesday night starting at 6PM ET, though what we play is always different. I will provide a link at the end of the chapter/work if you want to watch us!  
> Now, on with the chapter. (Spoilers for Normal/Good Ending of P4 original and golden)

Yosuke hadn't panicked so hard in his life (he didn't count the times in his weird memory episodes, despite their desperate insistence at the back of his mind). Saki had collapsed and Yosuke was pretty sure she was possessed by something, plus Yu was off in la-la land, staring at the ceiling and not responding to anything Yosuke was saying. The paramedics arrived a short time later, but it was long after the brunette had begun pacing around the apartment in worry and a short time after Yu seemed to snap back into reality.

The two said nothing to each other, Yu panting for breath as if he had run a marathon and Yosuke too distracted with what was going on with Saki to force the silverette to tell him what happened. Once the doctors had arrived and carted the blonde girl away, the two young men packed up Yosuke's stuff and walked it back to their apartment building, dropping the boxes in Yu's living room and collapsing onto the couch next to each other.

Yu broke the silence first, "Konishi Liquors."

Yosuke's head whipped in the silverette's direction almost fast enough to give himself whiplash, "Where did you hear that?"

Yu's hands clasped and rubbed nervously, clearly uncomfortable, "I- I kind of remember a place with that name. Only...it was more like a storage space than a store...and there were these weird things--"

"Shadows." Yosuke corrected, almost automatically.

Yu met his gaze, but didn't comment, just kept going, "and there was a weird bear...and you were there in your high school uniform...and there were two of you."

The two stared for a long time, trying to determine how much to trust what they were saying to each other.

Finally, Yosuke broke down, "I thought I was going crazy."

Yu sighed and sagged in relief, "For a moment, I thought I was too. How long have you been seeing these...memories, I guess?"

Yosuke coughed and looked downward, "Since I met you."

Yu practically choked on his own spit. It was apparently not the answer he had been expecting.

Nervous, Yosuke found himself unable to close his mouth, "I thought it was just shock, you know, over breaking up with Saki, sitting in Chie and Yukiko's apartment and just surrounded by these weird images and muffled voices and strange situations. But the longer the scene went, the more real it felt, and the less muffled things became. I watched myself face all of his major faults in front of a stranger I had just met but could clearly picture younger and wearing my school's uniform and a pair of glasses, but for some reason it all just seemed like it was what had happened. It kept feeling like that was what I had experienced instead of some dreary, rainy day in Inaba.

"But I think the worst of it was realizing that in this dream-world, Saki was dead."

Yu looked serious, eyes steady as he waited for the brunette to gather his thoughts.

Encouraged, Yosuke stopped trying to force his mouth to stay shut, "Part of me felt like this was just my subconscious trying to fix a situation: I wouldn't have gotten into that fight with Saki if she'd been dead; we never would have gotten involved with each other, that kind of stuff.

"Only I kept getting dreams, dreams of you and me going to Okina just to take in the scent of the city or strolling down the flood plains to go to school. I've got my bike rolling next to me, sometimes. Other times we're talking about getting licenses to ride scooters, or just talking about the latest test scores in school. Inconsistencies pop up, sometimes it's Mr. Morooka teaching, but other times it's a strange older lady with a big chest, and somehow it feels like King Moron is dead.

"More than anything, though, it's about how you and I hang out, getting to know each other better, and I keep feeling like you and I are supposed to be closer than we are, but somehow I can't label it. I can't tell if you're my best friend or a brother, or maybe something else entirely. I thought I was really starting to lose it. But there's one thing I know for sure:

"If you're seeing two of me in Konishi Liquors with barrels stacked floor to ceiling, and a bear costume that looks like he's trying to be a clown that strikes you as odd because somehow you know it's empty, then I'm not the only one who's having trouble accepting the reality we've been living."

Yosuke panted for breath, winded from his long speech. For a long time, the two just stared at each other, as if there was some kind of realization that they could only encounter together.

Yu stayed silent for at least five minutes, staring into Yosuke's eyes, before he seemed to reach a decision, "I dream of a blue door sometimes."

Yosuke's breathing hitched, and his heart thudded in his chest.

"There's nothing else there when I have those dreams, just a glowing blue door floating in space, fancy and covered in markings. Logic should tell you that the door leads nowhere, since there's no building or anything behind it, but my mind always calls it the door to the Velvet Room. I even capitalize the name of the room in my mind. But for some reason, the door doesn't open for me. It's like trying to get into the room you grew up in, only someone's inside already, holding the door shut tight. I hear voices come from inside sometimes, like an old man and a woman are speaking from within the room that I can't see, but I can never hear what they're saying.

"Once, though, I heard a new voice, more familiar and easier to identify. I heard your voice," Yosuke's breath pulled in again, held in anticipation, "and you were crying."

Yosuke felt tears roll down his face, and his breathing turned heavy, just short of sobbing.

"My only thoughts were how I could help, how could I fix what had happened. How tightly would you let me hold you to make the pain go away?"

Yu pulled Yosuke against his chest, not minding the wet tears and dripping snot that were falling on his shirt, just thankful to be able to hold the brunette close while he let out all of the pent up emotion.

"I realized then and there that I knew you better than I should have, that something happened to us to make us forget and be pulled apart. Whatever it was I didn't want it, and I told this to the you that was beyond that door. Do you know what happened, Yosuke?"

Yosuke was hiccuping more than crying now, but it took a couple of breaths to answer, "What happened?"

Yu smiled gently, "Your voice came back to me from beyond the door. He said, 'Then bring me back! Bring me back and never let me go! Never let me let you go again! Bring me back, Partner!'"

Yosuke felt a fresh wave of tears spill down his face, blurring Yu's face and giving him a splitting headache that was sure to be ten times worse later. It was a few hours before Yosuke stopped saying he was sorry, but he only did because he had passed out on Yu's chest on the couch in the silverette's apartment.

As Yosuke drifted into dreamland, the strange blue door appeared before him again, but this time there were more voices coming from inside. They sounded an awful lot like Chie and Yukiko, but somehow Yosuke knew they weren't. That they were, in fact, Tomoe and Konohana Sakuya, Chie and Yukiko's Personas, and that they were speaking to his own Persona beyond the door.

"This is all your fault, Jiraya! I don't know what happened, but I know it's all your fault!" That was Tomoe, just as brash and loud as Chie, and just as convinced that Yosuke was at fault for whatever went wrong.

"She's right, of course, but what was it that even happened? One minute we're doing just fine, and the next, we're gone!" Konohana Sakuya had that even, calm tone of voice that meant someone was going to pay, but it got more intense as she spoke, "Explain it to us."

"I tried to stop him! I really did! He wouldn't listen! He made that stupid wish, and he didn't even ask me!" That was Jiraya, likely cowering beneath the powerful gazes of the other two. Yosuke was suddenly thankful that they couldn't use electricity, though he didn't know why he even knew that.

There was a long stretch of silence where Yosuke shuffled closer to the door, unsure if he was just missing what was being said.

"What was the wish, Jiraya?" Konohana Sakuya's voice was completely still, and as dangerous as Yukiko's own voice ever got.

There were shuffling noises, like Jiraya was squirming under the woman's steady gaze, "He wished that he and Partner had met under more normal circumstances."

The silence stretched on again, and Yosuke found the cool presence of the door against the side of his face to be startling, nearly reeling back from the glowing blue surface as he struggled to listen and keep his balance. Ultimately, he failed and the fall caused him to shout in surprise.

Footsteps thundered toward the door from the other side, but Yosuke was already losing out to more visions, images of Tatsumi Kanji, local biker gang member in Inaba, getting swept into a sauna filled with flamboyantly male Shadows and confusing messages being broadcast like entertainment throughout the hallways. Surrounded by steam and fog at once, Yosuke felt his younger self begin to question his own attractions amidst the confused monologues of Kanji's doubts, taking more and more glances at Yu as they took turns taking shots at enemies. Even Kanji's Shadow itself was making Yosuke uncomfortable, but the thoughts couldn't leave his head.

When they finally beat the Shadow down enough that Kanji could take over keeping it down, Yosuke was both awed and frustrated with the younger boy's show of courage. It made him uncomfortable to think about his sexuality, however many indicators he had, and so when the scene blurred into meeting Kujikawa Rise in person and then have to rescue her from her own dungeon, he forced his mind to follow traditional thought patterns.

Rise's Shadow had been a surprise, and at once devastating and repulsive. Not the ideas that were clearly suppressed feelings, no, that part was expected and Yosuke held nothing against the girl for hating having to put on so many different faces for the public. No, the repulsiveness was borne purely out of what the Shadow was doing each time it attacked, and it was one of the nails in the coffin for Yosuke to admit that he wasn't as attracted to her as he thought he should be.

Worse still, Yu's figure and face kept popping into Yosuke's mind when he tried to think of something arousing, and it stuck more than just about anything Yosuke had imagined before. Just as he was getting a handle on this, however, perhaps on the verge of a realization, Teddie's Shadow made an appearance. After having saved the rest of them, it was no surprise that Teddie himself was too exhausted to help in any way, but Rise stepped up and the fighting continued, pushing the Team to their limits as they subdued the creature that used Teddie's image to convey a message it believed was worth killing over.

The battle faded from around him again, leaving Yosuke in the void with the door again, this time surrounded by Jiraiya and the Personas of his friends. Konohana Sakuya and Tomoe were standing behind him, Yukiko and Chie's heads in place of their usual helmets, but further back were Take-Mikazuchi, Kintoki-Douji and Himiko with their respective human faces in place of their own normal heads. Surrounded by so many reminders, Yosuke felt more tears begin to surface.

Jiraiya huffed, but stayed nearby as the others circled Yosuke in concern, "C'mon you big baby, this is just the basic stuff. It's going to get much worse from here. Now get out there and get working. If you don't get everyone's memory back soon, something's going to happen."

"What?" Yosuke asked in shock.

Jiraiya closed his eyes in frustration, "Something's stirring on this side of things, and we have it on good authority that it spells serious trouble. It needs to be stopped, but right now you're the only one who can even get here, let alone help."

"But, what can I do?" Yosuke asked.

Jiraiya locked eyes with his other, "We don't know. You'll have to figure it out yourself."

Before Yosuke could ask more, he felt himself get pulled away.

"Good luck."

Yosuke woke slowly to the sound of rain hitting the window, groggily staring at a ceiling he didn't recognize, but felt infinitely familiar. His grogginess lasted longer than it normally did, the warm, comfortable feeling around him trying to drag him back into sleep, but the brunette had a splitting headache and he had no idea why.

Deciding to think about it after he went to the bathroom, Yosuke suddenly discovered that the reason behind his disinclination to move originated from the pair of arms encircled around him and the warm, comfy body laying on the couch with Yosuke perched on top. His face felt like it had been lit on fire, and getting hotter with every gentle breath that ghosted across the back of his neck.

The brunette found that he couldn't move even if he wanted to, between his shock and the firm arms around him there was very little room to do so. Yu shifted in his sleep behind the brunette, nuzzling closer to the warm body he was holding, clearly too out of it to really know what he was doing, and Yosuke was too overwhelmed to leave it alone this time. He started fighting against Yu's hold, voice caught in his throat but making protesting noises all the same, and the struggle finally seemed to jerk Yu out of his sleep.

In his surprise, the silverette dropped Yosuke off the couch, causing the brunette to let out a yelp as he hit the floor. Yu seemed to stare at Yosuke for a very long time, clearly awake and aware, but nothing sparked in his eyes that looked like understanding. "Yosuke, what are you doing here?"

Yosuke couldn't help the full body flinch at the heartache the question caused, "What do you mean? You invited me over yesterday after we got my stuff back from Saki."

Yu's face was blank as he seemed to process this, but nothing changed. "I don't remember any of that. Are you sure? I was sure you went home after the ambulance pulled away."

Yosuke felt his breathing speed up, unable to comprehend what was happening here. He got up and walked out, ignoring the confused call of his name from behind him or Zio's pleading mew at the door as he walked across the hall to Chie and Yukiko's apartment. He needed some time to think.

The apartment was empty, though Yosuke took little notice as he single-mindedly headed for the guest room, slamming the door shut behind him. The picture on the dresser shook a little with the force, and Yosuke glanced at it absentmindedly, doing a double-take as he noticed more people in the photo than had been before. A blond boy stood in front of Yosuke wearing a frilly white shirt with a red flower, and somehow the brunette knew this was Teddie's human form, but Kanji was also present, standing behind Rise and Yukiko on the right, the space filled in on the right but leaving room in the middle as if someone were still missing. Yosuke felt the now familiar sharp pang in his head as an image came to mind.

A young man (woman?) in a Yasogami High uniform seemed to fit right between Teddie and Chie, a hat leaning over his face and a small smile on his lips. Yosuke felt the information come pouring in, visions of a secret-base type of dungeon with weird birds on tapestries and walls scattered throughout. It was accompanied by flashes of old-fashioned game style castle hallways and a young man seeking fame rather than self-worth, King Moron's death falling out of pattern with the other kidnappings and murders. Shirogane Naoto's dungeon reasserted itself, and Yosuke re-lived the revelation that Naoto was a woman with a grimace at his own ignorance. The information kept coming, though, as Nanako's kidnapping and rescue flashed through his mind and finally a single night slowed the progression of images to a single scene.

The entire Team was surrounding the man that was the main suspect in the murder case, staring him down after his Shadow had appeared on screen, telling them all what they thought were his true thoughts. "My god..." Naoto's voice rang out in the small space, and Yosuke could feel his blood boiling. This man had killed Nanako, and he was going to pay.

"P-please, stop." Namatame whimpered, his hands over his ears as he trembled in the corner.

"He wants us to stop. What should we do?" Yosuke could feel the anger settle like a calm pool in his chest as he turned to Yu, their fearless leader for an answer.

"Wh-what do you mean...?" Chie asked.

"We can't let this bastard do whatever he pleases." Kanji said.

"Still...what are you going to do?" Yukiko's voice was almost quiet, but her brow was furrowed.

Yosuke's own expression seemed to be locked into an angry frown, "No way I'm gonna walk out of here doing nothing..."

Chie started to tremble a little, her arm waving in slight panic as she spoke, "I-I understand, but..."

Naoto stepped around the group to stand next to the large, flat-screened TV that was between the windows, "This must be a luxury suite. Most hospital wards don't have such large televisions.... Why, with something like this in the room, this man could escape at any time.... Although once he enters...he may find there's no way out."

The other girls adopted panicked looks and turned toward the detective, wide-eyed, as Rise exclaimed in worry, "Wait a second! Y-you don't mean... Are you... serious...?"

Kanji growled in frustration and anger, and Yosuke felt the growl resonate with him so strongly that he almost growled in sympathy. The bleached-blond boy spoke in a steady voice that Yosuke knew should have terrified him at the time, "You just gonna turn your back and walk away?"

Rise stepped back a little in defense, clearly threatened by the boy's statement, "That's... But...!" Her eyes turned downcast even as Chie turned toward Kanji in her own frustration.

"Wh-What's gotten into you guys!?" Yosuke watched her turn toward him for a moment before turning toward the trembling man in the corner, hearing Chie do the same, "This is crazy! How can we do something like that!?"

Yosuke turned toward the brunette fully, his stance wide and angry, thoughts of poor Nanako and Saki racing through his mind, and he let loose all of his anger on the girl. "Chie! Everyone... listen to me. If we're gonna do this... now is our only shot. We won't get a second chance. At this rate, the guy's gonna get off the hook... And he'll go around "saving" people again! You just heard what this bastard's really thinking! If that happens, it'll be just like Nanako-chan and Senpai... Who knows how many innocent people will die this time? I can't let something like that go..." Yosuke let his eyes fall closed in anguish, thoughts pulling him in so many directions it hurt to think. "Someone close to me died... Her killer can't be convicted... And now I'm gonna let the same thing happen again?" The rest of the team stared at him, their thoughts about the situation plain on their face...except for Yu. Yu's blank visage pierced through Yosuke's soul, and Yosuke felt his next statement leave his mouth as if it were some kind of feeble defense from that stare, "There's no way I can do that! It's just wrong, isn't it!?"

There was a moment of tense silence, the team continuing to stare, before Chie spoke up, "B-But... Yosuke..."

Yosuke didn't want to hear it, "All we have to do is push him inside the TV... That's it. We do that one thing, and this is all over."

Chie seemed to almost be contemplating it, "J-Just... push him inside...?"

Knowing that he was winning, but that it was pushing it, Yosuke told the room as a whole, "If any of you want no part in this, just leave the room. I'm not gonna force you to stay." Yu's gaze burned in Yosuke's side, so he turned to the leader and asked, "As for me, nothing could make me forgive this bastard... But before we do this, I want to hear what you think. What do you want to do... Leader?"

Yu's face gave away nothing for a moment, but then Yosuke realized that the gears were turning in their leader's head faster than they ever had before, "Wait a second here..."

Yosuke growled, "We don't have time to wait! If we don't do this now, the cops'll come back! What're you trying to say!?"

Yu continued to stare, but answered immediately this time, "We're missing something."

Yosuke's confusion rose, but his anger was still at the forefront, "Something we don't know...? What don't we know!?"

Yu spoke calmly and with a level tone, "Namatame's true feelings."

Yosuke's frustration overcame his confusion again, "But we just heard the guy's true feelings on TV! What didn't you understand!?"

Yu's expression didn't change, "Something's bothering me."

Yosuke snapped again, growing and stomping his foot, "Well, what is it!? I already told you, there's no time to waste! Are you even getting at something here, or are you just stalling!?"

Yu looked deep in thought, but he still didn't move, "We're missing something..."

Yosuke's confusion rose again, "Missing...? Like what exactly?" Yu's lack of expression was infuriating, and Yosuke felt himself stomp his foot and growl again, "Dammit... I've heard enough of this bullshit! Give me a straight answer! Are we doing this or not!? That's all I give a damn about right now!"

Yu's face finally twisted into a look of anger and frustration of its own, "Calm the hell down!" his arm swung out the way it always did when he was trying to get a point across, and Yosuke almost stepped back when their leader stomped angrily in his direction.

The whole team was paying attention now, but Namatame was groaning in the corner, still shaking with his hands over his ears.

Yukiko caught on first, "H-He's right. L-Let's all calm down for a second."

Yosuke stood up straight, "I'm perfectly calm."

Chie asked, "Hey, what did you mean by "we're missing something"...?"

Yosuke butted in instead, "What's there to miss with a sick bastard like him!?"

Rise waved her hands in what might have been a soothing manner, "Hey, let's all take a deep breath. After what happened to Nanako-chan, and seeing Dojima-san... we're not thinking straight right now."

Yosuke's eyes never left Yu's, captivated despite his anger with the shifting of the colors as Yu tried to keep a handle on his own turbulent emotions, but he heard Kanji scoff behind him, "Fine..."

The room settled a little as everyone literally took a deep breath. Yosuke actually felt legitimately better after that, if only a little.

Naoto, logical person that she was, was the first to speak, "You're right... We should calm down and think rationally about this... I realize now that we've heard almost nothing from Namatame's perspective... There's no denying that this man brought great harm to Nanako-chan... But other than that point, the rest comes from our assumptions based on watching the Midnight Channel a moment ago."

The memory cut off abruptly as Yosuke gasped awake, realizing that he'd been staring into the TV screen in the guest room, and it must have struck midnight and started raining or something, because a yellow-tinted static was coming on screen. Yosuke made out his own shape in the static, but his instincts told him that it was Jiraya rather than his own shape, and he subconsciously reached for his Shadow, needing to reconnect. He didn't notice his hand sink into the TV the way he now remembered happening on a frequent basis, but there was a lurching as something grabbed his wrist and tugged.

The TV rippled as Yosuke fell into it, panic registering in his brain as he felt the world fall away around him.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me and my two friends on Twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/foreverplayer1


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